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causticcovercritic's review against another edition
3.0
Love! Lust! Despair! Murder! Suicide! Acrobats!
rachyreads's review
3.0
‘The Four Devils’ is a classic Danish novella, recently available as an ebook in the ‘Very Short Classics’ series. As the second I’ve read of this series, I remain impressed with both the concept and the execution of making these underrated European classics more readily available. The story follows Fritz and Adolf, brothers who are sold to the circus following the death of their parents, and sisters Aimée and Louise who together form The Four Devils, going from an acrobatic act to high flying trapeze artists. When Aimée’s feelings for Fritz become deeper and Fritz’s interest in a rich, married patron intensifies and becomes returned, tensions within the troupe become too much, threatening to destroy all they’ve built.
The prose was lovely, simple yet deep, occasionally opaque but otherwise a joy to read. The characters were well written and fleshed out appropriately given the length of the book. I definitely sometimes wanted a little more from some of the characters, but I understand the focus and time spent more with Aimée and Fritz as they are the two protagonists. I did get a good sense of some of the more minor characters, and of Adolf and Louise but more in a sense of their role in our main character’s lives than in their own right. Again, given how short this novella was, I understand why there wasn’t more time for them to shine themselves, I’m just greedy and when something is good, I always want a little more. The story itself was also very good, it was paced mostly well with the ending feeling a little rushed to get to the final point. I felt like it could’ve benefitted from being just a little longer, either that or maybe just a little shorter, it being a little less slow in the middle leading up to the inevitable maybe would have evened out the pacing that little bit more. This is a little nitpicky tbough, and otherwise the story itself was very good and well executed.
Overall, I feel similarly about ‘The Four Devils’ as I did about the previous very short classic that I read (‘Childless’ by Ignat Herrmann), with this one being just slightly better in terms of story. That being said, I feel that ‘The Four Devils’ is a strong palate cleanser in that same way, being a great little read full of intrigue that is so easy to absorb when you’re between other books or need some help getting out of a reading slump. Both of these novellas would honestly be hard not to recommend to almost anyone.
The prose was lovely, simple yet deep, occasionally opaque but otherwise a joy to read. The characters were well written and fleshed out appropriately given the length of the book. I definitely sometimes wanted a little more from some of the characters, but I understand the focus and time spent more with Aimée and Fritz as they are the two protagonists. I did get a good sense of some of the more minor characters, and of Adolf and Louise but more in a sense of their role in our main character’s lives than in their own right. Again, given how short this novella was, I understand why there wasn’t more time for them to shine themselves, I’m just greedy and when something is good, I always want a little more. The story itself was also very good, it was paced mostly well with the ending feeling a little rushed to get to the final point. I felt like it could’ve benefitted from being just a little longer, either that or maybe just a little shorter, it being a little less slow in the middle leading up to the inevitable maybe would have evened out the pacing that little bit more. This is a little nitpicky tbough, and otherwise the story itself was very good and well executed.
Overall, I feel similarly about ‘The Four Devils’ as I did about the previous very short classic that I read (‘Childless’ by Ignat Herrmann), with this one being just slightly better in terms of story. That being said, I feel that ‘The Four Devils’ is a strong palate cleanser in that same way, being a great little read full of intrigue that is so easy to absorb when you’re between other books or need some help getting out of a reading slump. Both of these novellas would honestly be hard not to recommend to almost anyone.
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